Monday, April 27, 2009

The Colonel's Beer Butt Chicken- With Attitude

Whole chickens were 99cents a pound this week. It's grilling weather. Read on.

The Colonel's Beer Butt Chicken
1 - 3 to 5 lb. whole chicken3 - 12oz cans of beer (Your favorite kind)Seasonings: Any, All or None of the following
· Salt
· Pepper
· Garlic
· Soy Sauce
· Cajun Seasonings
· Hot Sauce
· Lemon
· Seasoned Salt
· Lemon Pepper
· Poultry Seasoning
· Cayenne Pepper
· (Basically use what you like.)
Open one of the cans of beer.......DRINK. (Fun already, huh!) Wash chicken well andremove giblets. Drain. Now rub your choice of spices inside and out. Open the second canof beer.......and insert it into the Southbound end of a Northbound chicken. Youknow, where the chicken's sun don't shine. The beer and the chicken will beable to sit upright on your grill, and that's the position you want. Cover and barbequethe chicken over a low flame (about 350 degrees) for 2-3 hours.
Wiggle the joints of the chicken's leg to check doneness. When the leg wiggleswithout any resistance, the bird is done. Remove the can of beer from thechicken. The beer should be evaporated down to a half a can of beer or less.
Enjoy your dinner with that last beer (if you're not driving) and BBQ sauce onthe side. Also goes great with baked beans and potato salad. Yum!!
Copyright © 1997, Colonel St. James

The Colonel's Homepage

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Road Warriors

No doubt about it, travel isn't cheap, but there are always economies, large and small that will pare some dollars off your trip.

We're driving from Boston to NYC on Tuesday. For two, with the price of gas down and an economical car, driving is still the cheapest. We park on the street and observe the NYC rules.
We also stay with a friend, which will shave at least $600 off the trip for hotels. If we had to pay for a hotel, we probably wouldn't go. Our friend also serves breakfast and one dinner. We take her to dinner one night and split the meal on the third night. She has a museum membership, so we get into MOMA for $5.00 each intead of the regular rate.

We'll also save $20+ dollars taking our lunch. I'll broil/bake a chicken breast on Monday. We make sandwiches, take potato chips, cookies, fruit and something to drink. A commuter cup brimming with coffee. The chicken, chips, cookies and fruit were all on sale. We have soft drinks in the fridge left from a house guest.

You get the idea. A trip that would cost over $1000.00 is accomplished for a couple hundred. I take busses or the subway whenever possible in Manhattan. More savings. If the distances aren't too great, walk.

When you're looking at the weekly specials, consider what you may already have in the freezer/pantry and plan your meals. This cuts way down on the weekly groceries. You do shop the specials?

I found a cheap pizza stone at the Williams Sonoma outlet which will make doing our own pizzas even easier. Homemade pizza rocks. It's not dirt cheap, but if you shop for sales in the grated cheese section, you'll do all right. Italian sausage is on sale frequently. Pepperoni can be purchased in SMALL quantities at the deli. No need to buy huge amounts. Tomatoes and broccoli were on sale today. Hey, that's a good topping. You keep pepper flakes on hand, don't you? Spices, while costly, add so much interest and flavor to food.

I buy ALL my spices on line at http://www.penzeys.com/. Once you're a good customer, they send freebies with each order. You can also order very small or very large amounts, depending on your level of use. I grow sage, chives, oregano,mint,dill, cilantro,parsley, and basil. Nothing beats tomatoes with thin slices of fresh mozzarella and chopped basil with a little EVOO. Once tomato season is here, all you buy is the EVOO (from Ocean State Job lot) and the fresh mozzarella. Yum!

Can hardly wait for summer. It's 72 degrees south of Boston today, and I'm going to plant spinach and beets today. Get that garden going. Create your own compost. Coffee grounds encourage earthworms, something my mother taught me.

Pare that cheese!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

23 Houseplants

How did I ever accumulate so many houseplants? I just counted twenty-three. We are wintering the geraniums over, which I've done for five years now. Saves buying new ones in the spring. I started with a beautiful hanging geranium which I couldn't bear to part with when autumn and the frosts came, so I hung it indoors. Cut it back and kept it fed and watered. It even surprised me by blooming a bit. The next year I either rooted cuttings or brought all the geraniums in. To a plant, they lived.

This year a friend told me to take cuttings of his coleus. I now have a great plant to put outdoors this spring, bushy and colorful. I kept the scented geranium indoors for two years. Houseplants attain sentimental value, particularly when one arrives on the heals of illness. I have a sansevaria that came that way and is 27 years old. It even bloomed once.

One Christmas cactus is even older. I rescued plants from offices when people left or were laid off. Maybe you can tell where this is leading. With a little (but not much) work and forethought, you can have lots of cheap plants, free plants. And this blog is all about cheeseparing.

Another thing I do is take some of the plants outdoors in the summer and put them on the porch. They really thrive in the moist New England air with some (not full) sun and frequent waterings.

This week I'll divide my dianthus, and I've already found a home for some of the divisions. A tray of seedlings are growing in the kitchen window. Last year we had the most fantastic heirloom beets. This year the garden will be geared more toward veggies except for a few big pots of flowers. A seed packet of nasturtiums always pays dividends.

It's always interesting to see what reseeds itself from year to year. If you aren't doing some gardening, even indoors in pots or containers, you're missing the boat. Food, flowers, nuturing and relaxation. What could be better?

The Cheeseparer